QUARTERLY JOURNAL. 



nent, and highly symmetrical, and stood out in bold relief on the 

 sides of the canes. They were produced so near to each other as 

 to be only one and three quarters of an inch apart. Now, a cor- 

 responding shoot produced in this country by an established vine 

 would be about twenty-five feet in length, and the buds w^ould be, 

 on an average, distant from each other betwixt four and five inches. 

 The shoots produced in these different countries, therefore, would 

 each contain pretty nearly the same number of buds ; and the 

 question immediately arises, what was the cause of the great dis- 

 proportion that existed in the length of these shoots 1 Simply, no 

 other than the greater intensity of the light and heat which the 

 Spanish shoots enjoyed over the English shoot. Nature was as 

 long manufacturing one and three quarters of an inch of wood in 

 Spain as she was four and a half inches in this country ; but then, 

 in the former instance, the bright light of the sun, and the inten- 

 sity of his rays, would not let the shoot go ahead. Their united 

 influence caused it to linger in its growth, and its watery sap, there- 

 fore, was turned into a jelly-like substance almost as fast as it was 

 produced, and then fine fruit buds were the natural consequence. 

 And these shoots may be considered as types of all others produ- 

 ced within the vinous latitude. 



It follows, then, that in England the roots of vines do not want 

 stimulating, but that the soil for them should be like that which 

 they enjoy in the finest countries, dry, rocky and warm. He con- 

 siders it extremely detrimental to a vine that its roots should be in 

 a soil where perhaps the temperature is 34 or 40 degrees, while the 

 branches should be luxuriating in a temperature of 70 or 80 degrees. 

 He would, therefore, for all vines in greenhouses prepare an arti- 

 ficial bed for their roots, as he prepares an artificial climate for their 

 branches and fruit. The principle on which he would form this 

 bed, for we do not here pretend to enter into details, is that of 

 making a pit in the earth, three feet deep, and four or five feet 

 square, lining it with solid brickwork, so that the roots of the vine 

 shall not pierce through, and filling it wdth broken bricks, mortar, 

 charcoal, and bones. These materials should be used in equal pro- 

 portions, without admixture of any other substances. The bricks 

 should not be too hard-burned, and the mortar should be old. 

 Those, with the charcoal, should be in lumps, about the size of an 

 egg. The bones, if hollow, should be broken in half, that the roots 

 may creep into the cavities. Any will do, but they should be of 

 animals that have arrived at maturity, from their greater hardness. 

 These substances should be well packed, and the vine-root care- 

 fully placed in them. The flooring should be of firm brickwork, 

 wnth one row of bricks loosely laid, that they may be taken up to 

 afford the roots moisture when required. 



The result of this treatment is that the roots, being furnished 

 with the largest possible extent of surface, and with the best nutri- 



